Thankful ~ Theme Thursday Image for 11.27.03

Christ has Risen!
Click on image for a larger view.

I am thankful to God for the many blessings and gifts He has given me, such as Jenne and our cats, the many good souls that are my friends, and the many skills and talents that I have. I am very thankful that God has given me sight, creativity and artistic vision. I am thankful that I can use those gifts in service to others and to honor Him who created me.

I made the above image Wednesday evening in our church before the Thanksgiving Eve service. I arrived over half an hour early so I could set up and capture this image before the church filled with worshippers. I used my tripod and Minolta Dimage 7i set to program mode. However, I manually set the ISO to 400 and the white balance to incandescent. I used the spot meter to expose for the cross, which underexposed the background ceiling and overexposed the three lights in the copula. The Tau cross is approximately eighteen feet in height, made of solid wood and hangs suspended above the alter. I shot from a low angle to emphasize certain things and to include others to add to the symbolism in the image. The low angle gives a feeling that the empty cross is rising into the light. It signifies that Christ has defeated sin and death and has risen into glory. The three bright lights represent the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The many smaller lights represent the Heavenly Hosts. It is my submission for this week's Theme Thursday challenge of Thankful.